Spotted: A global housing shortage is keeping millions of people out of affordable homes. In Canada, more than 3.5 million new housing units are required by 2030, and that is in addition to those already in development. Labour shortages are a further challenge affecting most industries, including construction.
Artificial intelligence (AI) could help builders keep up with demand, and Toronto-based Promise Robotics uses off-the-shelf industrial robots to power its proprietary homebuilding production system. A cloud-connected software platform oversees every stage of construction, from initial building designs to scheduling factory operations and on-site logistics.
The system is offered as a service to homebuilding professionals seeking ways to run their businesses more efficiently. No robotics knowledge is required, and construction partners can use the platform to oversee operations for multiple building locations and projects.
The AI optimises designs and factory operations for everything from single-family units to multi-story, mixed-use structures. Businesses can then deploy their staff to the most efficient roles. By increasing efficiency across the entire homebuilding process, Promise Robotics believes that up to 560 megatonnes of carbon emissions could be prevented annually.
The company is currently completing construction on its pilot factory in Alberta, and following a series A funding round that raised CA$20.8 million (around €13.9 million), has plans to expand across North America.
From regenerative farming to cleaning the hulls of boats, Springwise’s database features a number of innovations making effective use of versatile robotics technology.
A new design trend prioritises the needs of bugs and animals above human beings. Rima Sabina Aouf finds out if “interspecies design” is the next step in creating more sustainable spaces and objects.
An exhibition designed to invite in animals, a garden optimised for the senses of pollinators rather than humans and architecture designed with nooks in which birds and insects can nestle form part of the novel approach.
“This is a subject that we have been more and more interested in,” the co-founder of London design practice Blast Studio Paola Garnousset told Dezeen.
Blast Studio started out by making 3D-printed structures from waste coffee cups where mycelium – the filamentous part of fungus that has applications as an architectural and design material – could grow.
Blast Studio is now making its 3D-printed mycelium structures with thought to other species. Top photo is courtesy of Serpentine Gallery
But as the designers gradually optimised their designs with more folds and interstices that would meet the organism’s preference for darkness and humidity, they found themselves thinking about other species as well.
The studio is now working on an outdoor pavilion whose intricately structured columns will accommodate ladybirds, bees and birds.
“The 3D printing techniques that we use give us the possibility to create artefacts that are designed both at the micro scale of fungi and insects and the macro scale of human beings,” said Garnousset.
Interspecies design about “changing our level of respect” for other creatures
London’s Serpentine Gallery has hosted two projects that centred interspecies approaches in the last two years.
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s Pollinator Pathmaker is an artificial-intelligence-powered tool that designs gardens to be as appealing as possible for bees and other pollinators, while Tomas Saraceno’s Web(s) of Life exhibition involved making several changes to the building so it would be welcoming for the animals and insects of the surrounding park.
Ginsberg considers the interspecies approach to be an attempt to create with empathy for other lifeforms. She came to it after spending several years researching the idea of what it means to make life “better”.
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s Pollinator Pathmaker project is about optimising gardens for the pleasure of pollinators
“Exploring how other species experience the world and – in the case of Pollinator Pathmaker – how they experience the things that humans create, opens up a world filled with empathy,” said Ginsberg.
“We need to think beyond sustainability towards prioritising the natural world.”
MoMA’s senior design curator Paola Antonelli has also developed an interest in interspecies design. She suspects the approach has a “very long history” but that it is reemerging in the West in line with the recuperation of indigenous knowledge and the rise of the rights of nature movement, which involves granting legal personhood to entities like rivers and mountains.
“I think that we get closest to real interspecies design when we think like that,” Antonelli told Dezeen. “When we change our level of respect and communication and really try to position ourselves in a different way, not as colonisers but rather as partners in crime, so to say.”
A “process” towards the impossible
True interspecies design, as Antonelli sees it, may be impossible since human designers have a fundamentally human-centric view of the world.
But Antontelli considers the term a useful umbrella for a range of works that call for an “unlearning and learning process”, dismantling the hierarchy that humans uphold between ourselves and other species.
Her version of the canon includes earlier works that attempt to find “a common language” with animals, like Sputniko!’s Crowbot Jenny, for which the designer, scientist and polymath created an instrument in order to communicate with crows.
Then there is Thomas Thwaites’ GoatMan project, for which the designer spent three days living as a goat.
Thomas Thwaites spent three days living as a goat in his GoatMan project. Photo by Tim Bowditch
While Thwaites told Dezeen he doesn’t consider GoatMan to be a true work of interspecies design – “the impetus of GoatMan was my desire to have a holiday from being a human, so pretty selfish” – he does see the connection.
“Goatman was definitely intended to contribute to a shift in how we think of non-human creatures,” he said. “Goats are just as highly evolved as humans – there’s no hierarchy.”
“I feel that interspecies design is a process,” said Antonelli. “That it goes from designing for animals to designing with animals to – what’s the next step? Enabling animals to design for themselves?
“That would be the real gesture, right? If we were able to actually let go of the tools of production. That’s what I would like to see at some point.”
The thorny status of biodesign
A practice of creating together with organisms as they conduct their natural processes, known as biodesign, is emerging. It includes making mycelium bricks or bacteria-produced textiles.
These objects are created by human and non-human actors together, but different projects treat their creature-collaborators in varying ways.
Antontelli considers Neri Oxman’s Silk Pavilions, a biodesign project created in collaboration with silkworms, as one of the closest examples yet to a true work of interspecies design.
Oxman studied silkworm behaviour in detail for the work and ended up finding a way to encourage the caterpillars to lay down their silk in sheets rather than cocoons, creating unusual structures.
Neri Oxman’s Silk Pavilion II was made by silkworms encouraged to lay down silk in a different shape
In contrast to traditional silk harvesting, the silkworms are not killed during this process but instead caught safely as they metamorphose and left to carry on living.
This level of care and symbiosis make the Silk Pavilions stand out as works of interspecies design, even if, in fact, we can’t know for sure that the silkworms are happy with this arrangement.
Curator Lucia Pietroiusti, who is head of ecologies at the Serpentine Gallery where Saraceno and Ginsberg’s works were presented, thinks the area of biodesign distils a key tension in the budding practice of interspecies design.
“Many completely legitimate, genuine and compassionate attempts to design with more-than-humans at heart also exist within capitalist consumerism, within a chain of production,” she said.
“No matter how you slice it, making more of something new is always going to be making more of something.”
And what is ultimately good for other species is probably that we make as little as possible.
A new look for sustainability
While it can be tempting to conclude that the best design for other species is no design at all, that downplays the role that projects like these can play in changing the way we think about production.
Pietroiusti sees interspecies design as part of an evolution of the idea of sustainability towards something more like “thrivability”, where we design for the planet to thrive, not just survive.
“Sustainability as a notion has been in too close a contact with zero-sum principles – this is sustainable because I do it and then I do something else to offset it,” she said. “In the maths of the planet, that is very rarely the case.”
Tomás Saraceno included consideration for the comfort of spiders in his environmentally focused Serpentine Galleries exhibition
“Are there situations in which certain projects or initiatives can think more ambitiously than sustainability or than reducing harm, and into ‘can we leave things actually better than they were before?'”
Seven years on from GoatMan, Thwaites believes that while the real shifts to recognise and protect non-human creatures need to come at the legislative level, design can contribute commentary and explore how the change might materialise.
“I hope people will one day look back once the cultural shift has happened and wonder at how we didn’t have interspecies design,” he said. “Like smoking in pubs and all the more important social shifts that have taken place over the decades.”
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Spotted: Heat is crucial for many manufacturing processes. However, generating that heat is also emissions-intensive, with industry responsible for 30 per cent of all of the UK’s heating-related greenhouse gas emissions. One solution is the use of renewable sources, like solar, but this is an intermittent energy source and is not always available when it is needed. To solve this problem, British startup Caldera has developed a new type of heat storage system.
Caldera’s system includes a solar array of almost any size. The solar power is stored as heat, using novel storage cells made of an aluminium-volcanic rock composite encased in vacuum insulation. These highly efficient modular cells are rapidly heated to 500 degrees Celsius and can store this energy for hours, ready to deliver heat on demand at temperatures between 80 to 200 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature range needed for many industrial processes.
The cells can deliver heat whenever required, allowing businesses to substitute on-site solar for more expensive, and non-renewable, gas and electricity. As Caldera explained, the system allows industrial players to capitalise on affordable and abundant solar energy, which can be generated on-site or nearby, and stored until it’s ready to be used.
In June of this year, Caldera was awarded £4.3 million (around €4.9 million) from the UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero to build a full-scale demonstrator of the system.
Heat storage is a focus of a number of recent innovations spotted by Springwise, including using scrap aluminium to transport heat and hydrogen and a storage system that captures waste energy for reuse.
Chinese car manufacturer Nio has launched Blue Sky Lab, its own sustainable fashion brand, which has been shortlisted for a 2023 Dezeen Award.
Blue Sky Lab creates garments and accessories using materials left over from the car manufacturing process including seat belts, airbags and other car-grade fabrics to demonstrate how waste can be “creatively repurposed”.
Nio has launched its own fashion brand
Nio claims the label is “the world’s first sustainable fashion brand launched by an automotive company and brought to mass production”.
Blue Sky Lab made its debut in 2021 at the Shanghai Auto Show and has since reused nearly 55,000 metres of waste fabric.
The pieces are made using leftover materials from car manufacturing
These car-grade surplus materials can help to create new high-performance products, according to the brand.
“Blue Sky Lab enjoys an innate advantage by adopting auto-grade materials in its fashion products as these materials outperform their consumer-grade counterparts to a large extent,” the brand said.
“We think more about improving our products rather than blindly catering to the external environment. For example, the recycled materials from the airbags are light and durable with high strength, a perfect fit for lightweight fashion items.”
Blue Sky Lab launched in 2021 at the Shanghai Auto Show
The materials are simply sterilised and repurposed into a variety of products in line with the brand’s minimal futuristic aesthetic.
“Regarding environmental protection, most visual communication tends to adopt nature and green elements,” the company said.
“However, rather than being confined by such a monotonous style, we have chosen to find inspirations from our DNA and business areas including innovative technologies, manufacturing and industrialization, and lifestyle in carrying out product design.”
“Blue Sky Lab has joined with global design talent including Nio’s designers, Japanese architect Shuhei Aoyama, French leather goods designer Vincent du SARTEL, Finnish designer Rolf Ekroth, NIO user designers and designers from Parsons School of Design, Li-Ning and Allbirds,” the brand added.
The brand told Dezeen it has mass-produced over a hundred different fashion items since its inception alongside tables, stools and lighting fixtures.
Blue Sky Lab has also created furniture and lighting
The brand also partnered with an independent product testing and certification agency to calculate the carbon footprint of its bestselling products.
“Compared with their counterparts made of traditional raw materials, their footprint per unit is 18 to 58 per cent less,” the brand said.
Blue Sky Lab has been shortlisted for a Dezeen Award
Blue Sky Lab has been shortlisted in the sustainable consumer design category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
Here, the brand is competing against the world’s “first refillable” edge styler and soap-in-a-can brand Kankan.
Spotted: Mexico is one of the world’s leading food producers, but more than 90 per cent of farmers lack access to formal financing, limiting their opportunities to invest properly in their fields. But Mexican agri-fintech Verqor is hoping to change that with its digital solutions for farmers.
The startup is working to make credit accessible to every farmer in Mexico by using a financing process that takes into account the sector’s specific characteristics. Verqor analyses the actual paying capacity of a farmer by considering various data points, including normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) factors (the greenness and density of crops), supply chain trends, weather patterns, and changes in crop prices. Unlike most traditional financial providers, Verqor also reviews information like a farm’s sales history, any contracts for selling their crops, and past inputs. This gives a more comprehensive view of a farm so Verqor can better assess credit viability.
Verqor provides cashless credit quickly, so farmers can access the inputs they need to grow crops, including fertilisers, agrochemicals, organic products, trailers, and macrotunnels. Farmers repay the credit with their produce sales at the end of the crop cycle. This financing covers up to 90 per cent of a farmer’s initial costs, allowing them to invest in essential inputs that can help to improve produce quality and yields every cycle.
The startup recently raised $7.5 million (around €6.9 million), including $4 million (around €3.7 million) in a pre-series A round led by Yara Growth Ventures. The funding will allow Verqor to expand its operations in Mexico and broaden its network. Verqor is also further developing its technology so that its approval process can be seven times faster than normal financing options.
Springwise has spotted many innovations looking to digitise and reshape various industries, including an all-in-one digital health clinic for women, as well as a digital platform for energy retailers.
Spotted: Fuel cells come in many different forms, but at the heart of all of them is a semi-permeable membrane. These are made out of “forever chemicals”, which are both environmentally hazardous and toxic to humans. Now, researchers from NTU Singapore and ETH Zürich believe they have found a way to replace these harmful chemicals in fuel cells with chicken feathers.
The waste feathers, which would have been discarded anyway, are made out of a protein called keratin. Once extracted, this keratin can be heated to create ultra-fine fibres called amyloid fibrils. The researchers found that these fibrils, in turn, could be used to create a membrane that was capable of conducting protons – a crucial aspect of fuel cell membranes.
Fuel cells can be great providers of clean energy, with hydrogen fuel cells producing only water and electricity when used, rather than generating greenhouse gases like conventional fuels. As well as eliminating the need for harmful substances in the fuel cell, the technology also makes use of a significant waste source and prevents the feathers from being burnt, which produces further CO2. As one of lead researchers, Professor Raffaele Mezzenga, said: “Our latest development closes a cycle: we are taking a substance that releases carbon dioxide and toxic gases when burned and using it in a different setting“.
In testing, a fuel cell setup using the membrane was capable of powering an LED lamp and spinning a small fan. The team’s next step will be to test the durability of the membrane and make necessary improvements. The researchers have already filed for the associated patent and are looking to partner with investors, with the goal of eventually making the technology commercially available.
Springwise has spotted other ways innovators are unleashing the potential of clean hydrogen fuel, including in a plane powered by liquid hydrogen as well as a new compact hydrogen fuel cell.
Spotted: An efficient cold chain is vital for ensuring maximum agricultural efficiency and reducing post-harvest losses, as well as for keeping delicate pharmaceutical products safe. However, refrigeration uses a lot of energy. In fact, according to the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the refrigeration sector is currently responsible for around 17 per cent of global electricity consumption. To reduce this, KrossLinker has developed what it claims is the world’s most insulating nanomaterial.
Earlier this year, the startup released its first commercial aerogel product, called Cryar Aerogel Board. This is a water-based, Silicon Aerogel composite board designed to reduce the energy needed to keep pharmaceutical and food products cold during shipping, with its nano-porous structure providing excellent thermal insulation.
The company’s aerogel is lightweight, non-toxic, and reusable. It is made using a novel drying technique that reduces the energy consumption of the finished product while speeding up production. KrossLinker claims that its product is made at half the cost of traditional aerogels.
KrossLinker has collaborated with a number of packaging logistic companies to accelerate the adoption of Cryar aerogel shipping containers. Beyond the cold chain, KrossLinker’s technology also has applications in the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) and building construction.
The energy consumption of the cold chain industry is the subject of a number of recent innovations spotted by Springwise. These include solar-powered cooling for the livestock industry and the use of compostable materials for cold chain packaging.
A modular shelter made from cardboard, a street bench made of recycled plastics and oyster shells and an inkless pencil are among the highlights of this year’s Seoul Design.
For its 10th anniversary, Seoul Design 2023 looked at what role design should play in creating a sustainable future under the theme of Valuable Life.
The annual event, which is hosted by the Seoul metropolitan government and organised by Seoul Design Foundation, combines the Seoul Design Week festival and tradeshow Design Launching Fair.
This year’s Seoul Design focused on sustainable design. Photo is courtesy of Seoul Design Foundation
This year, it focused on elevating Korean design brands to the global stage and had a strong environmental and sustainable angle.
“We want to open up our design industry to more businesses and distributors internationally, to make Korean design truly global, ” Seoul Design Foundation’s CEO Rhee Kyung-Don told Dezeen.
Read on for a roundup of five of projects that showcase Seoul Design 2023’s sustainable approach:
Photo is courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects
Disaster Temporary Housing Module by Shigeru Ban
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has designed a version of his temporary shelters – which can be used to house people affected by war and environmental disasters – especially for Korea.
The prototype is a simple structure that uses cardboard tubes as columns. Honeycomb cardboard made from hanji, a Korean traditional paper, form the shelter’s modular wall panels, while cardboard tubes function as its roof structure.
The foundation was composed of makgeolli (Korean rice wine) crates, instead of steel or concrete, to minimise the environmental impact and keep costs low. By adding modular wall units and columns, the size of the shelter can be extended when necessary.
The shelter can be built without the help of skilled builders, since all the materials are lightweight, and was designed to be easy to assemble and disassemble for relocation.
Photo is courtesy of Lowlit Collective
Taesan Bench by Lowlit Collective
Taesan Bench is a street-furniture range sourced and manufactured from Tikkle plastics. Made from discarded plastic, the bench was enhanced using biomaterials such as oyster shells and natural fibres.
Developed by Seoul-based design studio Lowlit Collective, the bench is the first piece in a wider collection and takes its inspiration both from Korea’s mountainous terrain and the practice of traditional sumukhwa – ink-wash painting. The recycled plastic was ground by hand, resulting in unique patterns and colours.
Photo is courtesy of One+Design/MW
Zai pencils by One+Design/MW
Seoul-based design studio One+Design/MW has presented two types of pencils under the brand Zai that it claims will last a long time without sharpening.
According to the studio, the carbon-ink pencils never require any sharpening and would never break. It says this is because their ink core has been compressed 100 times more than a normal pencil.
The studio also showed an inkless silverpoint pencil, composed of metal alloy and silver, that it claims will last forever. The company aims to cut the cost and environmental impact of conventional wooden pencils.
Photo is courtesy of University of Seoul
Hairbrushes by University of Seoul Industrial Design Department students and LABO-H
A team of four senior students from the University of Seoul Industrial Design Department has created eight different hairbrushes for a more fun and accessible hair-washing experience.
The students collaborated with shampoo brand LABO-H to explore how design can shape people’s basic daily behaviours and contribute to a positive social impact. Materials used in the brushes include silicon and plastics recycled from coconut shells.
Among the designs were a triangle-shaped hand-held brush suitable for washing a fringe of hair, and a set of three finger caps with different cap shapes to give a more intense hair-massage experience.
LABO-H held an online vote for the public to choose their favourite brush design and will manufacture the most popular one.
Photo is courtesy of ITM Architecture Office
Zero Waste Pavillion curated by Yoo Ehwa
Zero Waste Pavillion was a public resting area located at the central square of Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). Curated by architect Yoo Ehwa from ITM Architecture Office in Seoul, the pavilion was built entirely with paper and sawdust supplied by local manufacturers.
Sawdust used for the floor was made of coconut chips from handmade floorboard specialist Kujung Maru, while paper rolls from paper company Hansol Paper were adapted into stools and presentation boards. All materials used in the pavilion will be recycled and reused after the exhibition.
Seoul Design 2023 took place from 24 October to 2 November 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
According to the International Energy Agency, 10 per cent of passenger vehicles sold globally in 2022 were all-electric – ten times more than were sold five years ago. In sub-Saharan Africa, where solar energy is abundant, electric vehicles (EVs) represent a pathway to a low-cost, low-emissions transport future – which is not only great news in terms of tackling the climate crisis, but also in terms of improving air quality in many cities. Nairobi in Kenya is the fourth most congested city in the world, and suffers from air pollution that consistently exceeds World Health Organization guidelines. Kenyan electric transport company Roam is building affordable, clean energy vehicles which promise to revolutionise transport in Africa.
To date, mass adoption of EVs in African countries has not been possible because most models are not designed for use in Africa, where the vast majority of travellers rely on various forms of public transport rather than private vehicles. While road conditions are generally good in the Kenyan capital, some remain unsurfaced and so develop potholes. And once you are out of the city centre, less than six per cent of roads in Kenya are tarmacked. To overcome this challenge, Kenyan electric mobility company Roam Electric has designed a range of specifically adapted e-motorbikes and buses suitable for African terrain.
The bikes are an affordable and efficient solution for Nairobi’s Boda Boda taxi drivers, who give commuters lifts on motorbikes. The Roam bikes can cut the drivers’ costs by 50 per cent and are more attractive to customers as they offer a smoother ride. For the 43 per cent of Nairobians who use public transport, the ‘Roam Move’ and ‘Roam Rapid’ electric buses have helped to create a more integrated public transport system that can bring people in from more rural areas.
Like other cities around the world, Nairobi is growing fast, and around 200,000 fossil-fuelled vehicles are added to its roads each year. Roam Electric promises a viable alternative, tailored to suit the specific needs of the city’s landscape and people; a model that can be developed and adapted across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Spotted: One part of the UN FAO’s (Food and Agricultural Organization) forestry programme is the “conservation and sustainable use of forests to enhance forest-based livelihoods.” In this spirit, Finnish materials technology company Montinutra has created a chemical-free extraction process for valorising forestry waste.
Using Pressurised Hot Water Extraction (PHWE), the company transforms forest industry side streams into valuable new ingredients for the cosmetics, food and beverage, and chemical industries. Sawdust and bark are two of the most common waste products in the forestry, and with Montinutra’s inexpensive, efficient extraction process, businesses can turn a byproduct with little value into a new income stream.
The bioactive compounds that come from wood waste are highly valuable ingredients. When they are used in place of petrochemical-based materials, manufacturers reduce production emissions while improving the health of their products. In cosmetics, for instance, wood sugars provide emulsifying, SPF-boosting, and antioxidant qualities, and the ingredients can be used in industrial applications as binders, coatings, and fillers.
The extraction process works with many different types of feedstock, and the machinery and hardware are modular, transportable, and use closed-loop water circulation and energy recovery. That makes it easy for lumberyards and other forestry businesses to integrate a new system into existing infrastructure while improving the overall sustainability of their operations. The minimal amount of material left over after extraction can then be used for biofuel.
Montinutra’s pilot plant in Turku, Finland, proved the viability of the technology, and the company is now in the planning stages for its expansion to industrial-scale manufacturing capabilities by 2026. Following recent funding, the company hopes to quicken its international expansion and is also looking to soon rebrand as ‘Boreal Bioproducts’.
In Springwise’s database, other innovations centred on upcycling sawdust include using the material for 3D printing and building new beehives that help the insects survive winters.
